Xylocaine Viscous News

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 25, 2015 – Patients using prescription creams, gels, sprays and pills for skin conditions may shell out substantially more at the pharmacy than they did just six years ago, a new study suggests. Between 2009 and 2015, retail prices of brand-name dermatologic drugs rose 401 percent, on average, study authors reported Nov. 25 in JAMA Dermatology. Even generics have succumbed to price inflation, up 279 percent between 2011 and 2014, based on the drugs surveyed. Price increases for skin treatments far outpaced the general inflation rate of 11 percent during the six-year study period, the researchers said. "Cancer drugs were the worst in terms of the numbers" – up 1,240 percent or nearly $11,000 over the six-year study period – primarily because of two medicines, said Dr. Steven Rosenberg, voluntary professor of dermatology at the University of Miami Miller School of ... Read more

ISSUE: FDA notified health professionals, their provider organizations and caregivers for infants, that prescription oral viscous lidocaine 2% solution should not be used to treat infants and children with teething pain. FDA is requiring a Boxed Warning to be added to the prescribing information (label) to highlight this information. Oral viscous lidocaine solution is not approved to treat teething pain, and use in infants and young children can cause serious harm, including death. Topical pain relievers and medications that are rubbed on the gums are not necessary or even useful because they wash out of the baby’s mouth within minutes. When too much viscous lidocaine is given to infants and young children or they accidentally swallow too much, it can result in seizures, severe brain injury, and problems with the heart. Cases of overdose due to wrong dosing or accidental ingestion have r ... Read more

THURSDAY, June 26, 2014 – Teething infants can come to serious harm or even death from certain "gum-numbing" medications, according to a new warning from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The agency said Wednesday that local anesthetics known as viscous lidocaine, or benzocaine-containing teething products, should never be used for teething children, except under the advice and supervision of a health care professional. Viscous lidocaine contains a local anesthetic in a gel-like syrup. It requires a prescription and is typically used to treat mouth ulcers that can occur in patients undergoing chemotherapy. Parents who happen to have viscous lidocaine on hand may be tempted to use it to help teething babies, but they should not do so, the FDA said in a news release. There have been reports of teething babies suffering overdoses of viscous lidocaine, according to the Institute for ... Read more

FRIDAY, Jan. 21 – Americans suffering from muscle pain are used to taking a pill or rubbing in a cream to help soothe their aches. But a new form of pain relief seems to be catching on: analgesics delivered through a medicated patch placed directly where it hurts. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the country's first over-the-counter, pain-relieving transdermal patches in 2008. But the patches, marketed under the brand name Salonpas, are nothing new. They've been sold in various countries in Asia since the 1930s, according to their manufacturer, the Japanese firm Hisamitsu Pharmaceutical. "Salonpas is the Western world catching up with Asia," said Dr. Rick Rosenquist, a professor of anesthesia and director of pain medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and chairman of the American Society of Anesthesiologists' committee on pain medicine. "If you are ... Read more